REVIEW: ‘Voicemails for Isabelle’ Is A Rom-Com Retread

Voicemails for Isabelle, Netflix’s sweet new romantic comedy, knows it’s a rehash of You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle. Its characters even say as much, with Meg Ryan, and her filmography, name-dropped several times. But if you’re going to borrow a plot or two, you might as well borrow from the greats.

Jill (Zoey Deutch) and Isabelle (Ciara Bravo) are close-knit sisters living in Austin. Isabelle’s cystic fibrosis has kept her home most of her life. When Jill moves to San Francisco to start a career as a chef, she keeps Isabelle in the loop on her life through chaotic, funny voicemails. Updating Isabelle on bad dates and a boss (Nick Offerman) who won’t stop reliving his Top Chef contestant glory days, Jill’s voicemails bring Isabelle joy.

When Isabelle dies, Jill can’t bring herself to stop leaving voicemails, even though they won’t be heard. Or so she thinks. Isabelle’s old number is disconnected and reassigned to Wes (Nick Robinson), a realtor in Austin. Wes, now the unwitting recipient of Jill’s kooky voicemails, starts falling for the funny girl on the other end of the phone, who has no idea she’s sharing her life with him through these voicemails.

Comparisons to rom-coms of yore abound in Voicemails for Isabelle.

This is where the Sleepless in Seattle and You’ve Got Mail comparisons come in to Voicemails for Isabelle. Wes flies to San Francisco in search of Jill after a voicemail leaves a clue about where she’ll be in a day. When they eventually meet, he won’t own up to knowing who she is. It’s a good thing they have delightful banter and easygoing chemistry, or else this might get awkward.

There was an earnestness to Meg Ryan’s movies back in the day, when there was less cultural outcry about analyzing the ethics of falling in love with a stranger through lying to them. But Voicemails for Isabelle asks you to believe that these characters are well aware that rom-com tropes can be sort of creepy. Wes even compares himself to Tom Hanks in You’ve Got Mail.

Tom Hanks deliberately concealed his identity from Meg Ryan in hopes she might fall in love without hating him for hiding the truth. Tom Hanks got the girl in the end, Wes wonders, so surely Jill will forgive him if she ever finds out he’s been getting her voicemails.

Nick Robinson and Zoey Deutch have chemistry that sings, making them a believable enough couple-to-be.

No one can live up to Meg Ryan and Tom Hanks. Honestly, who can? It helps that Deutch and Robinson are a winning pair in their own right. Voicemails for Isabelle utilizes their likability and screen presence to great effect. When Wes falls for Jill and bonds with her over their shared Austin roots, it feels lived-in and real. When Jill grieves Isabelle’s death, it’s moving and devastating.

The supporting cast is less striking than its leads. Offerman is funny as Jill’s aggressive boss, but given little screen time. Lukas Gage is miscast as Jill’s obnoxious work fling. Director Leah McKendrick, who co-stars as Wes’s friend Breeda, showcases her writing best when writing for her protagonists.

There’s a throwback charm to Voicemails for Isabelle. It’s determined to utilize San Francisco as a character, the way You’ve Got Mail and Sleepless in Seattle both make New York a character of their own films. It speaks to an interesting trend in current films; 2026’s You, Me & Tuscany also borrowed from 1990s romantic comedies. Rather than outright remakes, modern romantic comedies tend to borrow plots and tweak them just enough to make us think they’re something wholly different.

Unfortunately, the supporting cast has little to work off of.

Voicemails for Isabelle is more upfront about its influences, and even You’ve Got Mail itself was based on the 1940s film The Shop Around the Corner, even surpassing that film’s popularity. Voicemails for Isabelle won’t outshine You’ve Got Mail, and the characters even encourage the comparisons. It’s a self-awareness that seems refreshingly funny, as though anyone can just stumble into the plot of You’ve Got Mail in everyday life.

Wes and Jill can stumble into a rehashed plot of You’ve Got Mail, even if they can’t quite capture its charm in Voicemails for Isabelle. Maybe updating 1990s romantic comedy plots by adding cell phones isn’t as endearing. As far as romantic comedies go, Voicemails for Isabelle doesn’t have the originality or wit of its predecessors in the genre. But it’s got a lot of heart, and you might be inclined to leave a text (or voicemail) to share its charm with others.

Voicemails for Isabelle is now streaming, exclusively on Netflix.